How Hard Can It Be?: A Novel
Jun 2018 · Macmillan + ORM
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A woman approaching fifty must rejoin the workforce as she juggles motherhood and her husband's midlife crisis in this "brilliant, funny, and tender" novel ( Booklist, starred review).
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it's left to Kate to go back to work.
Companies aren't necessarily keen on hiring forty-nine-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.
When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her fiftieth birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling: drinking green potions, dressing head to toe in Lycra, and spending his time—and their money—on his own therapy. Since Richard no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it's left to Kate to go back to work.
Companies aren't necessarily keen on hiring forty-nine-year-old mothers, so Kate does what she must: knocks a few years off her age, hires a trainer, joins a Women Returners group, and prepares a new resume that has a shot at a literary prize for experimental fiction.
When Kate manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she founded, she finds herself in an impossible juggling act: proving herself (again) at work, dealing with teen drama, and trying to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her fiftieth birthday. Then, of course, an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
Surely it will all work out in the end. After all, how hard can it be?
A woman approaching fifty must rejoin the workforce as she juggles motherhood and her husband's midlife crisis in this "brilliant, funny, and tender" novel ( Booklist, starred review).
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids, a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: mo...
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About the author
Allison Pearson is the author of the New York Times Notable Book and bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It and I Think I Love You. Named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, Pearson has won numerous awards for her journalism. She is a columnist for The Telegraph (UK) and has also written for many other publications, including Time, The New York Times, Vogue, and Woman & Home. She lives in Cambridge, England, with the New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane and their two children.
You can find her on Twitter at @allisonpearson.
Allison Pearson is the author of the New York Times Notable Book and bestseller I Don't Know How She Does It and I Think I Love You. Named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, Pearson has won numerous awards for her journalism. She is a columnist for The Telegraph ...
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